Review: Parallels 4.0 for Mac

The latest version of the latest version of Parallels Desktop is out, and many …

Ubuntu 64-bit test

The Ubuntu install process went well, with the exception of the aforementioned lack of tablet support, which forced me to use the keyboard to navigate the installers. After that and a finicky keyboard install of Parallels Tools, I soon managed to get unflaky mouse behavior working. I also got 3D applications Blender and Maxwell running without a hitch:

Realtime 3D in Ubuntu and Blender.

New to Parallels 4 Tools are shared folders for Linux guest operating systems, but even after the Parallels Tools install, I couldn't get file sharing—or copies from my Mac desktop—to work. Trying to access shared folders in /media/psf/ just gave me the same error regardless of what I did:

Mmmm…persimmons.

Apparently I'm not alone in having problems with Ubuntu 8.10 and Parallels. Just to be sure that it wasn't the 3540 build messing up the VM generated with the first build of 4.0, I tried a fresh install of Ubuntu 8.10. It didn't work properly, either. So I downloaded and installed the 8.0.4 release, which worked a bit better. I could read shared folders and files in /media/psf/:

My dog often imitates me.

But the honeymoon was short lived. That spinning ball in the 40D SHOTS folder kept spinning indefinitely while trying to load a simple set of folders:

Clipboard transfers between the Mac OS and Ubuntu VM never worked either. After a total of four fresh installs and much tinkering, I gave up trying to get Ubuntu 8.10 or 8.04 64-bit to work. As you can see from that photo, I only have so much hair to rip out.

Mac OS X Leopard Server

The situation with OS X was a bit better. After many failed attempts to boot from a Leopard Server CD image, I tried to boot from a DVD, but then it kept locking up too:

After jiggling a bunch of handles, I discovered that the offending setting, 4-way SMP, was enabled. Apparently, if you want to avoid crashes, you need to have the VM set to one CPU first and then enable more CPUs later. After the OS install finished and Parallels Tools for OS X were installed, I ran into more problems. Drag and drop copies didn't work, and the Parallels Tools disk image mounted on the desktop after every boot. Other than that, Leopard server worked well enough—if you can say that, given the inability to copy files to it.